If you had to Vote in Your Boss…

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Last week’s election shifts might be interesting if they applied in your work life. What if every CEO and board director was elected and you had a vote. I wonder what it would look like?

The first thing would be what’s the voting system –  do your votes “count” depending on first past the post vs proportional representation? Could you vote for each role or do you have to to just vote on the leader or a set team? How often are the elections held and how long can they drop the ball for whilst electioneering? How much time and money goes into electioneering vs getting stuff done?

The second thing might be what would you judge the candidates on? What they have delivered, not what they say? Whether you trust them or not? The quality of the strategy they propose, their values, their credibility & their understanding of what customers want? What they propose to pay you and other ways they will reward you? Do you judge the issues, the performance or the rhetoric?  Do you get the numbers with which to judge and do you trust them?

I suppose this is what stock market analysts do all the time, i.e. vote for and against a management team with their buy/sell/keep advice (or do they, cynically speaking,  just move the price so there’s a bet to be placed).  Selling their team and their policy is what FTSE 100 boards spend a lot of time doing with the stock market.

But what would happen if they should be made to pitch to their staff and customers for their jobs? After all, staff and customers don’t always want what the stock market wants –  something that has purpose & values, something that adds value to them personally.

I’m agnostic when it comes to politicians, but what appears simple is that, in business, anyone who delivers as little, talks as much, commits to nothing, wouldn’t get elected. Maybe that’s why we need more politicians who put their foot in their mouth or who are least honest and forthright about what they think. Leaders who stand up for something (even anything!), rather than managers who avoid getting anything wrong, stepping out of line or saying what they think.

Boris, Ken and Nigel – now that’d be an interesting board, certainly not bland! Not sure about the results, though.

Would you vote for your boss? Would your team vote for you?

Author: Guest Author

Published On: 30th May 2014 - Last modified: 5th Feb 2019
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